Social Media Team2016 Transition Document

Group Members

Kirk Jennings – Social Media DirectorGabriella Luchetta – Conference Liaison, Social MediaJamie Coffin – EMA Liaison, Social MediaKenzie Thomson – Web Mag Liaison – Social MediaSimon Spencer – Sponsorship Liaison – Social Media

Group Description

The overall goal of the social media team was to generate awareness and drive interaction around the entire EMERGE brand. This included web magazine content, Conference tickets, website and promo and EMA tickets, website and promo. The team was responsible for creating campaigns as well as monitoring success and sharing those reports with other teams. Working collaboratively with all other teams across the EMERGE brand (specifically graphic design and video team) to remain timely and consistent with our online marketing. After receiving content from other teams, posts were written, curated and scheduled by social media team members. Most content was run through a team of 5 people, divided by EMERGE specialization, so that the voice and persona remained consistent.

Deliverables

What did we produce? Where did it go once delivered?

Our four main platforms we utilized throughout the semester were Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat. We posted content consistently across all four, each with specific guidelines. Note that although we were not directly responsible in shooting video, we managed the YouTube channel and pushed all video content across our social channels. Facebook and Twitter were mostly in tandem. Separate copy was written for each, always with some sort of visual (graphic created in Canva, image or video). On average, we posted 5-10 times a day on Twitter and 3-6 times a day on Facebook. Instagram relied heavily on visual content, only high quality images and videos went out. It was used primarily to highlight the work

created by Emerge students or to spotlight judges and guest speakers. Snapchat was used as a ‘behind-the-scenes’ outlet, allowing our audience to see the process of bringing the Web Mag, EMA’s and Conference together.

Each liaison was responsible for posting all content and updates related to their respective teams. We decided to streamline all EMERGE content into one account per social platform. This gave EMERGE a unified persona and created strong brand awareness. If team members could not post live they would schedule posts on Facebook directly or on Hootsuite.

Tracking

Every week (Monday afternoons) we would compile social media analytics from Facebook and Twitter for a report, delivered to the team and Nick before Tuesday morning. You can see an attached example of one of our reports. We opted out of tracking Instagram growth, but now that we’ve spent the semester building an audience, it may be worth it next year.

It’s a good idea to keep all of your weekly analytics in a separate document, for future reference and planning. Here is what they look like.

Facebook

Twitter

Promoted Posts (Twitter Ads)

We ran four different Twitter ads. Three of which were promoted posts, two conference ticket pushes and one EMA ticket push. The fourth was a follower increase campaign. All of which did reasonably well, and we can way under budget. See the attached document (Emerge Social Ads) for full breakdown.

Samples

All content was created on Canva (www.canva.com) and was run by art direction before being posted. We also worked closely with the graphic design team for our cover photos, profile pictures and ads. The following are examples of different visuals we used. NOTE: One of our biggest rules this year was to always have a visual component with a post. This is suggested to future teams. Make sure you check out the YouTube channel. We separated videos into playlists and used the same template for video descriptions across all videos. https://www. youtube .com/user/ EmergeTO

Emerge Media Awards – Day of

We collaborated with Humber IT and used their software ProPresenter, instead of buying a social media wall for the EMA’s. We used #EmergeMediaAwards as the event hashtag. We only used half the team the night of the event. Please see event plan and ProPresenter screenshots below.

Emerge Conference – Day of

Running social media from the conference involves a lot of moving pieces. See the social media plan below for details. We had two snapchat filters for the day (see Samples), and used TweetWall (www.tweetwall.com) as our social media wall. You can see a screenshot of that below.

Approximate Timelines

To keep the entire team on the same page and to make sure we didn’t miss any important dates/ deadlines, we created an editorial calendar (see attached Emerge 2016 Editorial Calendar). Some liaisons used social media plans, as well. Posts and graphics could be pre-created and stored in these documents for future use. See the conference semester plan attached (SocialMediaPlanMP).

Receivables

We worked closely with most teams, as social media touches every area of Emerge in some capacity. Liaisons were the main point of contact for each division of Emerge, and the team lead worked with the DC teams for content creation and web analytics. See below for a more detailed description of receivables.

Video Team: Posted videos to YouTube directly, we would then edit titles, descriptions, tags, etc. Then post to social media regularly. These videos came from the DC video team AND the Web Mag Doc team.

Graphic Design: Created various content for us. We had one member of their team work specifically with us to create all cover photos, profile pictures and ads.

Web Teams: All the web teams (Conference, EMA, Web Mag) sent us regular updates on web traffic. This helped us shape future strategies to drive the most traffic to the respective sites.

Tips and Advice

Communication is key. Start a Facebook group with your team, this will allow you to share ideas and graphics quickly. You should be able to get in touch with any member of the team at any time.

Use Google Docs. Our Editorial Calendar and social media plans were all created in Google Docs for easy, collaborative editing and sharing.

Create as much of the content yourselves as you can. Get accustomed to using Canva or photoshop (if you have the skills). The Graphic Design team doesn’t have time to create everything for you. Just use their skills when necessary.

Determine scope of all projects and job descriptions of team members early. This will allow future work to be completed quicker, without anything falling through the cracks.

Start right away. This is especially important with the EMA’s, as their submission deadline is very early in the semester. Since our social accounts only run for 4 months at a time, take advantage of the time you have.

Visuals, always. Social media posts without any visuals are boring and get way less engagement. Even if you just post the Emerge logo, use it. That being said, make sure all visual content going out is strong.

Take advantage of your budget. We didn’t get ads going until late in the semester and only pushed content on Twitter. Talk with Nick and Kathy about using funds on Facebook and Instagram. Since it isn’t our credit card, Kathy will have to post the ads as an admin. Twitter Ads work well, so use them.

FOR TEAM LEADER: Make sure your team is comfortable posting on their own before letting them do so. They should be well versed in social media best practices and know to use the correct hashtags, etc.

Logins and Passwords

Here are all the accounts we had access to this year. We didn’t use LinkedIn this year, but if you’d like to start it up again you can. To gain admin status on the FB page, see below or ask Kathy Ullyott, who is also an admin.

Editorial Calendar Sample

Social Media Ads Sample

Social Media Plan Sample